Vanessa Traina Snow, Wangechi Mutu, Nicola Vassell, and More at the New Museum Next Generation Dinner

The New Museum takes pride in its knack for raising eyebrows and lived up to that reputation by hosting its annual Next Generation dinner at a bathhouse on Friday night. The building’s Neoclassical facade was already familiar to the fashion professionals in the room—in its second life, the bathhouse has become a photo studio—but confused plenty of others who were planning to catch the Jim Shaw show currently on view at the museum’s home on the Bowery.

Instead, on view were Vanessa Traina Snow, one of the evening’s cohosts, and her sister Victoria Traina. Both wore Proenza Schouler dresses, and the designers themselves spent the evening never more than a few feet away from the sisters. New Museum Triennial alumni Njideka Akunyili Crosby and Josh Kline both received honors from director Lisa Phillips. Akunyili Crosby, the striking Nigerian artist who just opened a solo show at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, was wearing a dress by Prabal Gurung, who sat nearby for the dinner—an assortment of short ribs, caramelized cauliflower, and duck magret served family style. Hikari Yokoyama, in town for the New York auctions, chose a Prabal dress, too. Wangechi Mutu’s silver hair was a highlight (pun intended), closely rivaled by Cleo Wade’s burgundy velvet turban and the presence of Carlos Souza confirmed that at least a few of the women were wearing Valentino. And curator Nicola Vassell, back in New York after a sojourn in Venice that followed her show there during the Biennale, was impossible to miss in a floor-length concoction of zebra print and techno color. New Museum artistic director Massimiliano Gioni was, of course, in a black suit without tie. Save for Gioni, it’s fair to say that the next generation will be thoroughly colorful.